Thursday News: All about the Benjamins

GOVERNOR COOPER BATTLES GOP LEGISLATURE OVER CONTROL OF FUNDS: Legal teams for Gov. Roy Cooper and his Republican foils in the General Assembly were back in court Wednesday, arguing over money. They disagree over which branch of government ultimately controls certain types of spending, and Superior Court Judge Henry Hight heard arguments about federal block grants and the millions set to flow from the Volkswagen settlement fund, which was created to end lawsuits tied to the car company's faulty vehicle emissions figures. Hight said he would rule on those two issues, which account for $183 million in a much broader legal dispute, as soon as Friday. The Cooper administration argues that it can direct this spending within certain limits.
http://www.wral.com/cooper-republicans-spar-over-control-of-millions/17463931/

Wednesday News: Three cheers for Josh

NC AG JOINS LAWSUIT TO BLOCK CENSUS QUESTIONS ABOUT IMMIGRANT STATUS: North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has joined an effort to block the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. In a multi-state move, 12 attorneys general filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday alleging that demanding such information could skew actual resident numbers in states with large immigrant populations. That could threaten the fair allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars of federal grants and funding for education, roads and infrastructure, Stein and the other attorneys general stated. Additionally, census data are used to redraw political boundaries — from Congress to local school boards and commissions and allocate Electoral College seats.
http://www.newsobserver.com/latest-news/article207794039.html

Tuesday News: Walkout

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TEACHERS IN OKLAHOMA AND KENTUCKY ARE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST POOR PAY AND MISTREATMENT: Many schools will remain closed for a second day in Oklahoma Tuesday as teachers rally for higher pay and education funding in a rebellion that has hit several Republican-led states across the country. Oklahoma's three largest school districts, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Edmond, will remain closed Tuesday to honor the walkout. The Kentucky teachers are mad because Republican lawmakers passed a pension overhaul last week that cuts benefits for new teachers. Opponents objected that the pension changes were inserted into an unrelated bill without a chance for public input, and worry that the changes will discourage young people from joining the profession.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article207772929.html

Monday News: This little piggy stayed home

CHINA'S RETALIATION AGAINST TRUMP TARIFFS WILL HURT NC FARMERS: Monday's tariff increase will hit American farm states, many of which voted for Trump in 2016. Beijing is imposing a 25 percent tariff on U.S. pork and aluminum scrap and 15 percent on sparkling wine, steel pipe used by oil and gas companies, and an array of fruits and nuts including apples, walnuts and grapes. American farm exports to China in 2017 totaled nearly $20 billion, including $1.1 billion of pork products. There was no indication whether Beijing might exempt Chinese-owned American suppliers such as Smithfield Foods, the biggest U.S. pork producer, which is ramping up exports to China. The tariffs "signal a most unwelcome development, which is that countries are becoming protectionist," said economist Taimur Baig of DBS Group.
http://www.wral.com/china-raises-tariffs-on-us-pork-fruit-in-trade-dispute/17458474/

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

STOP THE LEGISLATURE'S POLICIES THAT MAKE PUBLIC SCHOOLS MORE SEGREGATED: From the 1970s through the first decade of this new century, North Carolina worked to end school segregation. In the process the state boosted funding for public education, increased teacher pay and improved student performance and graduation rates. But, as a series of recent studies reveal, that progress has been eroded over the last decade. The state’s financial support for public schools is being diminished. The number of public charter schools has been greatly increased. And a private school voucher program that lacks accountability, and in fact publically funds discrimination, is growing yearly. As a result, our public schools are becoming more segregated.
http://www.wral.com/editorial-legislature-s-policies-are-making-our-public-schools-more-segregated/1...

Saturday News: Nice try, Dallas

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE OPPOSING JEFF JACKSON RULED INELIGIBLE TO RUN: Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, could be the only state Senate candidate running unopposed after the county's Board of Elections rejected the candidacy of Republican Nora Trotman. Trotman says she'll appeal the decision, which came in response to two complaints claiming she is ineligible to run as a Republican in Senate District 37. One complaint was that she hadn't been registered as a Republican for at least 90 days prior to filing, while the other complaint took issue with the fact that her filing paperwork wasn't delivered in person, by mail or by a courier service. Trotman's paperwork was delivered by NC Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article207458799.html

Friday News: A litany of lies

NON-NURSE BEVERLY BOSWELL CLAIMS PROTESTERS WANT TO MURDER GUN OWNERS: State Rep. Beverly Boswell, a Republican from the coast, suggested on her Facebook page that speakers at the marches expressed violent intentions. "Many of the speakers at these rallies were calling for gun registration, confiscation, Second Amendment repeal and even the murder of those who would not turn over their guns to the government,” Boswell wrote on her campaign Facebook page. But PolitiFact found no credible evidence of rally speakers calling for violence against gun owners who might refuse to relinquish their guns. Most speakers at the Washington march and other marches across the country spoke about stricter gun laws and warned politicians of forthcoming punishment at the ballot box.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article20...

Thursday News: Musical chairs

TRUMP FIRES VA SECRETARY, TEMPORARILY REPLACING HIM WITH NC GOP POLITICAL FLUNKIE: President Donald Trump fired VA Secretary David Shulkin on Wednesday and chose a former aide to Jesse Helms and Thom Tillis to fill the job in an interim role. Trump tapped Robert Wilkie to be the interim secretary of Veterans Affairs while nominating his personal physician Ronny L. Jackson for the permanent post. Wilkie is a Capitol Hill veteran, having worked for then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott from 1997 to 2003. He was executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party before going to work for Lott. Wilkie also served as an aide to Helms, the late North Carolina senator, and former U.S. Rep. David Funderburk. Wilkie unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination in the 7th Congressional District in 1996.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article20...

Wednesday News: Chickenhawks of a feather

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BOLTON USED CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA TO TARGET VOTERS FOR THOM TILLIS: New National Security Adviser John Bolton's super-PAC worked with British data mining firm Cambridge Analytica on targeted ads supporting Republican Thom Tillis in his 2014 U.S. Senate campaign. Cambridge Analytica, which has been roundly criticized for its unauthorized use of personal data of some 50 million Facebook users, designed five versions of the same ad featuring Bolton that tailored toward different personality types. The ads ran on satellite television providers, which have the technology to allow advertisers to target individual subscribers. Cambridge Analytica then used its psychographic profiling to decide which ad should go to a given viewer. More optimistic, agreeable people saw a more upbeat version of the ad, while more fearful people were shown a more frightening version.
http://www.wral.com/bolton-s-super-pac-cambridge-analytica-teamed-up-on-pro-tillis-ads-in-2014/17446...

Tuesday News: Filed under, "Well, duh"

PREGNANT INMATES TO BE UNSHACKLED DURING DELIVERY: North Carolina prisons no longer will permit the use of leg or waist restraints on pregnant inmates after a recent complaint that two women were shackled to a hospital bed while in labor. Kenneth Lassiter, the prisons director, signed a new policy on Monday, nearly two months after SisterSong, an Atlanta-based organization that promotes reproductive rights for women of color, and groups from North Carolina sent a letter to the state Department of Public Safety questioning the treatment of the two unnamed inmates. The focus on North Carolina comes as part of a global movement in recent years to end the shackling of pregnant prisoners and offer better treatment in general to female inmates. More than 20 states have passed laws that prohibit the shackling of people in childbirth, SisterSong representative Omisade Burney-Scott said when calling attention to the North Carolina complaint
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article206877024.html

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